Human skin for testing cosmetics is grown in the lab

Human skin grown in a laboratory dish is expected to dramatically reduce the need to test cosmetics and chemicals on animals.

Activists say the breakthrough will spare tens of thousands of creatures a year the misery of laboratory trials.

The brainchild of researchers at French cosmetics company L'Orèal, Episkin is grown from cells harvested from the top layer of pieces of skin.

The pieces used so far have been removed from donors during cosmetic surgery to cut away excess folds after weight loss.

Once cultured in a dish, the thin and rubbery skin can be adapted to resemble older skin by exposing it to high concentrations of ultraviolet light.

Adding skin pigment cells called melanocytes also results in skin that can tan. And by using donor cells from women of different ethnicities, the team created a spectrum-of skin colours which can measure the efficiency of sunblock for different skin tones.

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Tests have shown that Episkin is at least as good as rabbit skin at predicting whether products will irritate human skin.

Kathy Archibald, of the anti-vivisection group Europeans for Medical Progress, said: "This is a great advance - not just for animals but for people, who will finally have a safety test that is relevant to them."

Now being marketed across Europe, the product is expected to come into its own when animal testing of cosmetics is banned across the European Union in 2009.

Companies are desperate to find an alternative, particularly as other EU laws coming in 2019 will demand the testing of thousands of chemicals for skin irritability.

While animal trials for cosmetics are already banned in the UK, customers can still buy imported goods tested in this way.

Estelle Tessonneaud, who helped develop Episkin at the L'Orèal laboratories, said: "Europe is in conflict with itself, calling for both a decrease in animal testing and for significantly more products to be tested. People have no choice but to adopt alternative methods."

The product will not, however, mean the end of animal tests - because they are still required by law in industries such as food, pesticides and pharmaceuticals.

Despite this, the development of Episkin, reported in this week's New Scientist magazine, is seen as a major step forward. Dr Christopher Flower, of the Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association, said he expects it to be widely used.